...from the Guardian:
"Lynne Featherstone, the local MP, said Baby P had fallen through "safety net after safety net. The Children's Act was borne out of tragedy in Haringey after the death of Victoria Climbié,'' she said. "Yet eight years after her death the law created to stop this happening again has failed to prevent a similar tragedy in the same borough. We must therefore have a fully independent investigation by the children's commissioner into what went so terribly wrong.""
Isn't it simply the case that with parents as appalling as this, nothing will prevent this terrible situation? 60 + visits from health and social services and they still didn't stop it.
isn't the paediatrician responsible? How on earth could he have missed injuries that were so severe and if he noted how miserable the child was why didn't he make the intelligent assumption that it warranted more than usual care? Especially if he had been told the child was on the register...
ReplyDeleteD
I think this just proves that no SYSTEM can protect children. If the people working in the system don't do their jobs then children like this will die. I just hope there are no lame calls for new laws or any attempt to claim that Contactpoint would have made a difference!
ReplyDeletejust some observations from having lived in Haringey for 13 years.
ReplyDeleteSt Ann's hospital has no A&E..if it had maybe the Pediatrician would have felt more inclined to bring in other opinions.
Tottenham is one of the most deprived areas in Europe and it is probably a factor as to why these things are happening there. The quality of services there are very poor IMO.
Haringey council sucks. I spent years battling them on a housing issue and they were so infuriating that I moved out of the borough just to be rid of them.
They doorstep home educators using Victoria Climbie as an excuse to enter homes. One EWO I met didn't even know home education was legal.
A health visitor tried to get me arrested for home educating.
The levels of ignorance amongst LA workers is very high. I luckily never encountered social services but I doubt they are much better..in fact it seems they are awful!
The other MP in Haringey is David Lammy. I wonder what he has to say about this.
Thanks for the insider view, Raquel. I wonder if Haringey is uniquely bad? Certainly we have had some of the sorts of problems you mention around here...eg: EWOs never having heard of home education and accusing parents of doing something illegal.
ReplyDeleteThen of course, another case where despite routine LA visits and oversight of a fostering HE mother, they still managed to miss signs of abuse that should have been fairly obvious to all and sundry.
D,
ReplyDeleteSmall children that are abused will not appear miserable or traumatised. They have no idea that what happened to them was wrong. It hurt at the time, but they wouldn't think of complaining.
I don't understand this kind of social work. What do they hope to achieve by visiting families?
If good parents are stressed by the prospect of inspections, imagine bad parents.